Filling machine



Feb. 9 1926.

' K. KIEFER FILLING MACHINE Filed July 21, .1920

FIG. 3

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 WH'NESSE& %%%W JEN Z1 INVENTGR.

INVENTOR.

3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. 5

n n n m K. KIEFE R FILLING MACHINE Filed July 21, 1920 FIG. 4

Patented Feb. 9, 19 26.

uiu'ran STATES KARL KIEIER, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

FILLING MACHINE.

Application filed July 21, 1920. Serial No. 397,835?

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, KARL KIEFER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful. Improvements in Filling Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates particularly to that class of filling machine which is suitablefor filling various containers by exhausting the air therefrom, and thereby creating a vacuum which causes the liquid to enter the vessels to be filled.

The invention is described in the accompanying drawings, of which: i r

Fig. 1 is a side View of the machine;

Fig. 2 is a partial top view;

Fig. 3'is' a front view;

Fig. 4 is a detailed cross section of the filling mechanism;

Fig. 5 is a modification of the. filling mechanism detail.

A is a horizontal bed plate of sufl'icient dimensions to hold a number of bottles, not only those which are seen in Fig. 1 as under the nozzles, but also a number of them in advance of the filling operation and a number of them that are filled.

I am not showing any particular mechanism for moving and replacing the bottles during thefillin operation as mechanisms of this sort are of machine. g

The bed plate A is supported by legs 13. A strong standard C of preferable circular cross section is held to the bed plate A and adjusted vertically by the hand wheel and screw mechanism D, and by clamping means 2, this standard can be securely clamped in the bed plate A. g

E is a bracket clamped to the standard C. The filling head F with slide 3 moves vertically in bracket E. It can be reciprocated in a vertical direction-by a lever-4 fulcrumed on a link 5 pivoted at 6 in the bracket E, and carries a suitable counterweight 7.

In Fig. 3, 8 is an exhaust tube leading to a suitable evacuating mechanism. G is the reservoir containing the liquid with a float.

mechanism I-I designed to keep a level of liquid in this tank. 9 is a tube communicating with this. reservoir and showing the same liquid level. From this communicating tube 9 the liquid is sucked out through nown to they art, and any. particular one may be adapted for this class tube 10 during the filling operation. Tube 10. fits loosely into this tube '9 and reciprocates therein during the vertical movement of the filling head. A pin-11 is fastened in he bracket E and acts as a stop to the movement of the lever 4, and thereby limits the downward travel of the filling headF for the purposes explained later on.

Filling head F carries'a telescoping tube arrangement 12 and 12 on its outlet which leads to the evacuating mechanism, and which maintains an air tight connection during its upward and downward movement.

I will now describe the details of the filling mechanism shown in Fig. 4: In this filling mechanism is shown a cross section through one of the filling tubes. 13 is an outer tube and 1'4 an inner tube; This innertube' terminates near the lower, end of the outlet filling tube in an opening 14'.

Tube 13 serves for the. admission of the liquid while tube 14 is for the exhaustion of the-air. Tube 13 is soldered into a nipple 15, which nipple has openings 16 and 16 communicating with a hollow socket 17. Nipple-15 screws by means of its thin upper part 15' into the filling head F. The ex-' haust tube 14 is soldered into this upper part of the nipple 15 and it projects into thefilling head F and communicates thereby with theexhaust mechanism by means of the telescoping pipe arrangement 12 and 12', which jis fastened at the outlet 18 of the .filling head.

The socket 17 communicates with a pipe- 19 to a manifold pipe '20, shown in cross section in Fig. 4 and in view in Fig. 1. This manifold pipe connects with pipe 10 and is for the admission of liquid that is sucked into the bottle. Check valves 21 are attached to this manifold pipe 20 and communicate with this pipe. The space above the ball 22 of each valve 21 communicates with pipe 19. A rubber gasket 23, so clamped as to be adjustable up or, down on the tube 13 serves to make an air tight joint between the tube 13 and the bottle 24 shown.

The adjustable clamp consists of a split collar around the tube, with a' clamp screw through the split side, this collar having a flat bottom up against which bears the top of the rubber gasket.

As it is common knowledge that bottles order to fill equally bottles of slight variaare not always of uniform height, and; in I tion, I employ two new means; in my application. One means is the peculiarly constructed gasket 23, and the other one is a special spring mechanism described later on,

designed to press the bottle from underneath against the rubber gasket 23. It is seen that the gasket 23 makes a tight fit against the tube 13 at its upper end, but has awider bore23 at. its lower end. It is therefore seen that this lower part may be compressed freely without being restricted by the friction against the tube 13.

The operation ofthe filling mechanism is as follows:

Presuming that an air tight connection of the bottle 24: against the gasket 23 has been made, then'it is seen that the air of the filling head. F being, exhausted through the opening 18, the air in the bottle Boeing e hausted through the tube 14 terminating in the filling head F, then the vacuum commuuntil it rises to a level with the opening 14.,

whereupon it will rise in the tube 14, and if the operation is continuous it will finally overflow into the vacuum mechanism. As soon as this takes place the filling operation ought to be interrupted, for it is assumed that all bottles will fill equally fast.

The purpose of the check valve 21 connecting with each filling stem is the following: It keeps the liquid up to a level of the check valve, and it is not necessary to suck the liquid up every time from its level in the tank, and time is thereby gained in the filling operation. I

"It will also be seen that I have only a single tube 10 for a multiple number of filling stems. Without the checkvalves, if I have all perfect bottles the filling operation would. roceed, but if there was one bottle with a adly chipped mouth that could not make a tight connection with the gasket 23-,

- none of the bottles would fill as one leak in the size of the bottles and still eflect an in the system of stems would be suflicient to ,prevent the rising of the liquid from the tank into the tube 10. Now with the check valves placed as shown, only that bottle which is defective would not fill, without preventing the other perfect bottles from filling.

I will now describe the other mechanism which I'am using to overcome the difference air tight closhre of each one of them against the gaskets 23 of the filling mechanism. The auxiliary pressing mechanism consists of pins 25, which are exactly centered under respective ones of the bottles, and which are upon springs 26 shown in Fi raised These springs are fastened on a sha t 27 top of the battle.

operated by a crank 28 and the'rod 29 can .This is shown in Fig. 1. These springs 26,

as shown in Fig. 2, are Hat and of considerable elasticity, and suflicient to take care of any inequalities in sizes of bottles. The

position of the set collar 30 along the rod 29 was to exert more or les pressure upon the bottles.

In Fig. 5 is shown a modification ofa gasket which is also designed to effect a tight closure, as against the vacuum, with the A gasket 31 of bell shape form is shown, having cylindrical part and cone shaped terminal part which makes with its interior contact with the outer edge of the bottle neck. The walls of this gasket are somewhat thin, and the vacuum tends to collapse these thin walls, thus aiding in making a tight contactupon the bottle lip.

.Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by LettersPatent is:

1. In a filling machine, a fixed table hav- 1ng a ,flat top across which containers may slide, and having a transverse series of openngs up and down therethrough, pins proectlng up through the respective openings, a rock-shaft journaled transversely on the lower side of the table, flat springs fixed to the rock-shaft and projecting under the respective pins, an arm fixed on said rockshaft at one side of the table, a standard on the table, a bracket on said standard,

.a filling head guided up and down on said bracket, a manifold on said head, filling,

tubes on the manifold over the respective p 1ns, gaskets on the respective tubes to make air-tight closure with containers entered by the tubes, a telescoping exhaust connection to said-manifold, a supply manifold parallel withthe aforesaid manifold with connections to the respective filling tubes, check valves in the respective connections, a telemanifold, means mounted on said bracket and connected to said filling head for moving the head up and down, and a connec-' toward the filling head as said filling head approaches thecontainer, a rocking-shaft, a flat spring projecting from said shaft against said'engaging means, a lever to move pressure can be regulated by changing the scoping supply connection to the supply 3. In a filling machine, a single inlet con-- ductor, a single exhaust conductor substantially parallel with said inlet conductor, said inlet and exhaust conductors being movable unitarily, filling tubes mounted on and movable with the single exhaust conductor,

check-valves mounted on and movable with the single inlet conductor and connected with the respective filling tubes, exhaust tubes connected with the single exhaust conductor, with inlets near the respective discharge ends of the filling-tubes, and means I for making air-ti ht closures with containers around the filling tubes. V

4. In a filling machine, a manifold having an outlet, filling tubes, nipples receiving the tubes and screwed into said manifold and having lateral openings, hollow .manifold to the respective hollow heads, and

overflow tubes extending into the first mentioned manifold through said nipples and opening out through the filling tubes near their lower ends.

5. In a filling machine, in combination with a filling tube, a gasket having a part closely embracing and rigidly held to said tube and an interiorly and exteriorly'free part extending along said tube from said closely embracing art and having on its free end an annu ar container-contacting area of such diameter relative to the extent of said free part along the tube and of such shape relative to the contacted container as to resist radially outward deflectionby the container, whereby said free part acts asa tubular column by being compressed along the tube.

v KIEFER. 

